A study spearheaded by a Kansas State University professor indicates three bird species common to the Flint Hills are declining in population

Three bird species common in the Flint Hills are declining in population because of drought, the destruction of nests by predators and other factors, according to a study led by Kimberly With, Kansas State University associate professor of biology. The birds are, from left, the dickcissel, eastern meadowlark and grasshopper sparrow.

The Flint Hills is an area from 30 to 50 miles wide stretching from Marshall County near the Nebraska border into Oklahoma, where the stateline changes the name to the Osage Hills. At one time, the tallgrass prairie encompassed about 100 million acres in North America, but only about 4 percent of that habitat remains.

The Flint Hills is home to a thriving cattle industry, but intensive grazing year after year can diminish the vegetation used by birds to build their nests and protect their offspring from predators.

THE DICKCISSEL
Size: 6 inches
Appearance: The male has a thick bill, yellow chest, belly and eyebrows, chestnut wings and a black bib under a white chin. The female is the same except for the black bib.
Nest: A bulky cup made of plant stems, grass and leaves.
Migration: Mexico, Central America and South America
Food: Insects and seeds
THE EASTERN MEADOWLARK
Size: 7 to 10 inches
Appearance: Male has a yellow throat, chest and belly, a black "V" across its chest, a brown, streaked back and white outer tail feathers. Female is same but smaller and with shorter wings.
Nest: Built on ground, made of grasses woven into surrounding vegetation.
Migration: Mexico, Central America and South America
Food: Insects, especially grasshoppers and crickets
THE GRASSHOPPER SPARROW
Size: 4 to 5 inches
Appearance: Both male and female are mostly brown, with an unmarked breast, large head, short tail and dark crown with a pale middle stripe.
Nest: A cup of grass stems and blades, usually with a dome made of overhanging grasses and a side entrance
Migration: Mexico, Central America and Caribbean
Food: Mostly insects, especially grasshoppers
SOURCES: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; "Birds of Kansas" by Stan Tekiela

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What do a dickcissel, eastern meadowlark and grasshopper sparrow have in common?

They're grassland birds that are disappearing from the Flint Hills.

Research by Kansas State University ecologist Kimberly With and her colleagues have found the three bird species are experiencing severe population declines because of extensive land management techniques, such as annual burning and widespread grazing.

"It's important to recognize it's not grazing or burning per se at issue. Both are necessary for the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, but doing it year after year becomes a problem," With said.

The Flint Hills — chiseled from sandstone, limestone and shale by the wind and water nearly 200 million years ago — is an area from 30 to 50 miles wide stretching from Marshall County near the Nebraska border into Oklahoma, where the state line changes the name to the Osage Hills.

At one time, the tallgrass prairie encompassed about 100 million acres in North America, but only about 4 percent of that habitat remains.

The Flint Hills, which contains the largest remaining tracts of tallgrass prairie, is home to a half-billion-dollar cattle industry and is heavily managed for grazing and other land uses.

"Because of its size, the Flint Hills is assumed to be a population stronghold for grassland birds," said With, an associate professor of biology. "Mostly, this has been based on bird counts, but they can be misleading because they don't show what the region is capable of producing.

"Birds are very mobile, and thus birds could come from elsewhere to give the appearance of a stable population year after year. This is especially true if the region attracts birds because of its size, but birds do not breed successfully once they settle here."

For the research study, With was joined by Anthony King, an ecologist with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and William Jensen, a former postdoctoral researcher at K-State. They did an intensive field study of the dickcissel, grasshopper sparrow and eastern meadowlark for two years, beginning in 2004.

They located the birds' nests and monitored their success to see if predators killed offspring or damaged eggs, how many offspring fledged or what other factors played a part in their survival.

With said the research team derived estimates of the number of offspring produced and used those numbers to assess the overall viability of the bird population in the Flint Hills. They also assessed the diversity and density of bird types and surveyed the vegetation.

With and her colleagues found the dickcissel, eastern meadowlark and grasshopper sparrow weren't breeding successfully and estimated population declines of as much as 29 percent during each year of the study.

"More than 80 percent (of the nests) fail because of predation," she said, listing small mammals and snakes as the most common predators.

The researchers found burning and grazing alter the habitat and reduce cover for nests, making them more vulnerable to predators. Instead of burning the prairie every year, With would like to see patch burning, where one-third of a landowner's acreage is burned each year and the cycle repeated every three years.

With's team also discovered that birds nesting in native prairie hayfields were more successful than birds nesting in grazed grassland. Hayfields in the Flint Hills are mown later than in other prairie regions, allowing birds to finish nesting before the fields are cut.

"These hayfields are a less-disturbed habitat than other managed grasslands in the Flint Hills, 90 percent of which is grazed and up to two-thirds may be burned," she said.

With said predators and land-management practices aren't the only factors in the declining bird populations.

"There was a drought one of the two years we studied the birds, and in that year birds didn't do well anywhere," she said. "Under global climate change, we may see more prolonged droughts and less frequent, but more intense storms. If rain comes as intense storms with hail, that could be just as lethal to the birds."

With said the study's results reflect the health of the Flint Hills' ecosystem.

"I fear it's no longer if grassland birds are declining, but by how much," she said.

While she believes more research needs to be done before recommendations on land management can be made, she said a solution that allows the cattle industry to thrive and the ecosystem to survive must be sought.

"The cattle industry is important economically to the region," she said. "The region is also ecologically important. The challenge is to what extent you can successfully achieve these joint aims of agriculture and conservation within the Flint Hills."

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environmental studies should be conducted. I'm convinced there's an issue here. The real question is how to implement the recommendations. One can probably safely assume that the lesser prairie chicken and some other species are also affected.

Not only are these three species declining in numbers but the greater prairie chicken is suffering badly. The lesser prairie chicken isn't found in the Flint Hills. They are found in more arid regions like southwest Kansas. What's interesting and fortunate is both the greater and lesser species of chickens are increasing their numbers and range in southwest and west central Kansas. Greater prairie chickens are doing quite well in central, north central, and northwest Kansas where burning isn't as widely used. I hope that conclusive studies are conducted soon. I also hope that recommendations from these studies are taken to heart. Ranchers need to pay their bills like everyone else but loosing these birds to profit would be catastrophic to the ecosystem. This has been the case throughout history though-bison, passenger pigeon, on and on, etc., etc. I love to hunt but would give up hunting species that need are help if landowners would cooperate with environmental experts.

I don't know if prairie chickens are eactly thriving in north central Kansas, at least as far as the area around Delphos, Glasco, Concordia, Scandia & Republic goes. I've never even seen one and the pheasant numbers have plummeted, too. Lots and lots of turkeys, though, which may be part of the problem. Or it may be a symptom. I've seen evidence that killing coyotes leads to big increases in foxes and bobcats, both of which prey on chicks much more heavily than coyotes do. It's an unintended consequence, but in the "web of life" a change in one part may result in big changes in another part of the web.

At any rate, the Flint Hills need preservation action. Konza is a good start, but just a start. The Smoky Hills need a look at, too.

According to a 2007 report by The National Audubon Society, two of these species -- the grasshopper sparrow and eastern meadowlark -- have lost 62 percent and 75 percent, respectively, of their global population in the past 40 years.
With and her colleagues found that birds are not breeding successfully in the Flint Hills. With said that more than 80 percent of nests were destroyed by predators. They also found that birds nesting in native prairie hayfields were more successful than birds nesting in grazed grassland. She said this might be because in the Flint Hills, the hayfields were mown later than in other prairie regions, enabling birds to finish nesting before the nests are mowed under.
"These hayfields are a less disturbed habitat than other managed grasslands in the Flint Hills, 90 percent of which is grazed and up to two-thirds may be burned," With said.
The researchers suggest that land-management practices may offer only part of the explanation for declining bird populations.
"There was a drought one of the two years we studied the birds, and in that year birds didn't do well anywhere," With said. "Under global climate change, we may see more prolonged droughts and less frequent, but more intense storms. If rain comes as intense storms with hail, that could be just as lethal to the birds."
With said that more study is needed before recommendations can be made to help manage these bird populations. But she said that the results are still valuable because -- like a canary in a coal mine -- birds indicate a region's overall environmental health.
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I think there are many factors that are leading to declining number of birds, they may be cutting of trees, increased use of pesticides. This issue should be dealt seriously because birds play an important role in echo system.

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I wouldn't be surprised as more birds disappear with global warming on the rise. There is a grim forecast predicting at least 30% of our species disappearing by 2025. This is an insane number of species in such a short amount of time (what typically takes thousands of years). I'm so sorry birds, we failed you.

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